Sunday Briefing: Ami Barer Wins Big at GGPoker

Matthew Pitt
Senior Editor
5 min read
Ami Barer

July 26 was another huge day for online poker tournament grinders who had dozens of high stakes events to choose from. The WPT World Online Championships continued at partypoker, while four players won WSOP bracelets at GGPoker, including Roberto Romanello who completed the coveted Triple Crown of titles.

There were plenty of non-festival tournaments too, here is the best of that action.

Ami Barer turned $5,000 into a much more substantial $90,506 by taking down the High Rollers Blade Closer $5K at GGPoker. Barer was one of 55 players in this high stakes event, which paid out the top seven finishers.

Pascal Lefrancois fell in eighth-place and burst the bubble. It was an expensive tournament for the French-Canadian because he fired three bullets in total.

“dugui777” finished in seventh place and banked $10,844. “FuTimReilly” and “Buttkus” were the next casualties before Adrian Mateos’ tournament ended in fourth-place, a finish worth $28,825.

Sam Greenwood made yet another deep run in a high buy-in tournament. He had to make do with the $39,930 third-place prize. Greenwood’s exit set up a mouth-watering clash between Barer and Christian Rudolph. Barer got the job done and his hands on $90,506, leaving Rudolph to collect the $55,312 consolation prize.

PlacePlayerCountryPrize
1Ami BarerCanada$90,506
2Christian RudolphAustria$55,312
3Sam GreenwoodCanada$39,930
4Adrian MateosUnited Kingdom$28,825
5ButtkusCanada$20,809
6FuTimReillyNetherlands$15,021
7dugui777China$10,844

This week’s GGMasters saw its $500,000 guarantee blown out of the water thanks to 4,106 players ponying up the $150 buy-in. $566,628 was paid out and the majority of that princely sum was shared among the top four finishers who struck a deal late on and flattened the payouts.

Hong Kong’s “Bluffyouguys” was the player at the top of the payout table. They won $56,792 as part of the aforementioned deal. “DobiMiner” ($52,354), “Pock0Loc0” ($49,351), and “clavette_kot” ($45,648) were the three others who were involved in the deal.

PlacePlayerCountryPrize
1BluffyouguysHong Kong$56,792
2DobiMinerCanada$52,354
3Poch0Loc0rAlbania$49,351
4clavette_kotCanada$45,468
5JulioSalinasGermany$19,072
6Insane_GuyGermany$13,289
7Johan “YoHViraL” GuilbertSerbia$9,259
8paraguaiiiBrazil$6,451
9PokerBUDDAHBrazil$4,495

Some of the other big scores at GGPoker on July 27 included:

  • “AndrewMc1954” – first-place in the High Rollers Blade Prime $5K for $120,755
  • George Wolff – first-place in the High Rollers Blade Mulligan $5K for $118,579
  • Timothy Nuter – first-place in the High Rollers Blade Opener $5K for $118,579
  • “lazyexpress” – first-place in the High Rollers Blade PLO $5K for $90,032
  • “BigusDickus” – first-place in the High Rollers Big Game Hunter $1,050 for $85,272*
  • Bruno Volkmann – first-place in the WSOP Side Event $800 Sunday Marathon for $82,402
  • Mike Watson – first-place in the High Rollers Short Deck $10K for $76,794
  • “drago17” – first-place in the Bounty Hunters Main Event $210 for $70,192*
  • Chi Zhang – first-place in the High Rollers Short Deck $10K for $68,222
  • “IAmTheClaw” – first-place in the High Rollers Battle Royale $525 for $64,986*
  • “TaiwanNumba1” – first-place in the Sunday Special $250 for $50,415
  • “GTOExploiter” – first-place in the High Rollers Main Event $1K for $49,456
  • “RoadToBMW” – first-place in the WSOP Side Event $200 Sunday Double Stack for $41,399
  • “DonPepe” – first-place in the Sunday Monster Stack for $41,210
  • “PLay4Mon3” – first-place in the Bounty Hunters Special $105 for $32,404*
  • “Wohoooooooooo” – first-place in the WSOP Side Event $125 Sunday Deepstack Turbo for $31,366
  • “No_No_No” – first-place in the High Rollers Supersonic $525 for $29,036*
  • “Forrest_Li” – first-place in the High Rollers PLO Main Event $1K for $24,779

*includes bounty payments

Catch up on the GGPoker WSOP action


Big Scores Galore at PokerStars

There was a British one-two in the PokerStars $1,050 Sunder Supersonic 6-Max and what a duo it was. The star-studded final table saw Peter “Belabasci” Traply bust in sixth for $6,799 and “krakukra” bust in fifth for $8,856 before “drupa-lucker” fell in fourth for the first five-figure prize of the night, namely $11,535.

Former EPT champion Alieksei “ale6ka” Boika crashed out in third to leave Max “goodeh99” Silver and Conor “1_conor_b_1” Beresford to fight it out for the title. Beresford was the player who emerged from the battle victoriously and with the $25,489 top prize in two. Silver walked away with $19,569 to show for his efforts. Beresford also chopped the $1,050 Sunday Warm-Up for $12,545.

One of the biggest prizes at PokerStars this weekend weighed in at $37,386, which was score awarded to Finland’s “nerdshok” in the $109 Bounty Builder. The Finn topped a 3,319-strong field to bank the $20,385 top prize. They also scooped an impressive $17,001 worth of bounty payments along the way, including that on the head of Ireland’s “penguy2” who was the tournament’s runner-up.

Check out these other big scores from PokerStars events on July 26:

  • “Jeffin_DF” – first-place in the $215 Bounty Builder for $36,066*
  • “salavt00” – first-place in the $109 Sunday Cooldown for $27,449*
  • “HITRII999” – first-place in the $1,050 Sunday Cooldown for $24,315*
  • “umvelt900” – first-place in the $215 Sunday Warm-Up for $23,285
  • Akira “Clutch Hero” Ohyama – first-place in the $215 Sunday Supersonic for $21,101
  • Pascal “FrenchDawg” Lefrancois – first-place in the Hotter $215 for $15,879*
  • Teun “tinneomulder” Mulder – first-place in the $1,050 Sunday Warm-up for $15,855
  • “SIR_Breaker” – first-place in the Bigger $109 for $15,230
  • “mopels” – first-place in the $109 Sunday Kickoff for $12,454
  • “grazus-oras-vis” – first-place in the Hotter $109 for $11,243
  • “Jipvis” – first-place in the Hotter $162 for $8,048*

* includes bounties

Get ready for Esfandiari versus Hellmuth on PokerGO


Jupiter Jones Wins Big at partypoker

The second of 12 WPT World Online Championships Championship Events kicked off this weekend, but there were some other notable tournaments taking place at partypoker too.

“Jupiter Jones” was the winner of the $320 buy-in Big Gladiator Mix-Max, a tournament that drew in a crowd of 462 entrants. Jupiter Jones got their hands on the $12,105 top prize and padded this with $11,351 worth of bounty payments.

“AKMaki95” won the $55 buy-in Gladiator Mix-Max. This affordable tournament attracted 1,922 players who ensured the ambitious $100,000 guarantee was hit. AKMaki95 banked a combined prize worth $9,829 when bounties were included.

There's huge value in the WPTWOC Mega Satellites


Bustling Tournaments at 888poker

British grinder “RustyFish44” walk away with the $5,439 top prize of this weekend’s $25,000 Sunday Challenge. Some 253 players bought in and RustyFish44 outlasted them all, including Irish runner-up “R3veng35” whose second $109 bullet turned into $3,921.

“DubaiPrince4” was the worthy champion in the $20,000 A Good Tournament. This new event is proving to be popular with 888poker’s players and will continue to be so if it keep awarding its champion $7,854.

The biggest 888poker prize went the way of “saudades123” who triumphed in the $100,000 Sunday Mega Deep. That tournament’s champion scooped a cool $18,890 after topping a field of 812.

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Matthew Pitt
Senior Editor

Matthew Pitt hails from Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, and has worked in the poker industry since 2008, and worked for PokerNews since 2010. In September 2010, he became the editor of PokerNews. Matthew stepped away from live reporting duties in 2015, and now concentrates on his role of Senior Editor for the PokerNews.

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